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UNITED STATES RUREAU OF EDUCATION 

CHAPT£R FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION 

FOK 1906 



Ln 396 
P5 
1907 
Copy 1 



Chapter VII 



Education in the Philippines 
and in Cuba 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1907 



-^ 



Cto 



CHAPTER VII. 
EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES AND IN CUBA. 



I.— EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



HIGHER AND SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

The report of this Bureau for 1898 afforded some information in regard to the 
University of Santo Tomas at Manihi. giving the date of its foundation, which was 
nearly contemporary with that of the English settlement at Jamestown, Va., with 
some other particulars; and in the report for 1899 there is a further brief account of 
the university, compiled from data contained in such of the discourses delivered at 
the annual opening of the university course as were then available in Washington. 
From statistics of secondary education published by the university in 1887 it was 
also possible to form some idea of the educational influence of a number of colleges 
or secondary schools throughout the islands which are under the control of the uni- 
versity and serve as preparatory schools for it. 

Since the American occupation the education reports coming fi-om the Philippines 
have been confined to the progress of the schools established by the American author- 
ities, the university with its secondary schools, besides a number of private schools, 
not being subject to government control. The Bureau is now indebted to the author- 
ities of the University of Manila for an additional number of the annual discourses, 
including some statistics, dating from 1897 to 1906, and from these it is possible to 
gather a further idea of the kind and quality of instruction given at the university 
and colleges, together with the number of students attending those institutions, respec- 
tively, before the American occupation. The recent numbers do not contain statistics. 

The addresses referred to, which were written by professors of the university, cover 
a variety of subjects, ranging from philosophy and theology to details of chemical 
analysis, upon which they had lectured to their students during the university course. 
Taking them in order, the earliest of them (1897) was delivered previous to the Ameri- 
can occupation of the islands. It is a chemical treatise, consisting of a discussion of 
Kjeldahl's method of estimating nitrogen in organic compounds. The author goes- 
into the history of this technical subject very fully, and shows his familiarity with 
German and French chemical literature. Such a narrow subject, full of details of 
experiments, would seem rather out of place as the material for a discourse on an 
academic anniversary, and the author, whose education had clearly been much supe- 
rior to that which is sufficient for the mere teaching of chemistry, in his introduction 
prepared the way for his scientific paper almost apologetically, by describing broadly 
and critically the relations of science in general and of his subject in particular to the 
world of knowledge at large. He concluded his address with the following words, 
which are noteworthy, coming as they did from a Dominican professor in a Philippine 

141 



142 EDUCATION REPORT. 1906. 

university and uttered on a public occasion at Manila in the year 1897, before the 
Americans took possession of the islands: 

"The requirements of our epoch," says the author (Rev. Father Felix Oses y 
Abaurre, of the Dominican Order, professor in the faculty of sciences), "are manifested 
in a practical way by the establishment of schools in which the natural sciences occv- ■ »y 
the leading place as a subject of public instruction. These schools will make the 
next generation more energetic and intelligent, and more capable of understanding 
all that is really useful and great. That generation will create new resources for the 
State and augment its power, and when, finally, material existence shall have become 
easier the sufferings of the world will be relieved more speedily, and the mind, 
purified and enlightened, can then be directed more readily toward the author of all 
created things." 

The next "discourse " in order of time (by Rev. Father Jose Farpon, of the faculty 
of philosophy and letters) is dated 1900, and has for its subject a comparison between 
psychology and physiology to prove the thesis that such a comparison, especially 
from the study of the intellect and the will, obliges us to recognize the necessity of a 
spiritualistic (or superphysiological) psychology. A brief synopsis of the author's 
argument is given to illustrate the scope and plan of the higher studies which Filipino 
students could take at the university. In the course of his argument the author 
occasionally produces definitions and axioms from the great intellectual leader of his 
order, St. Thomas Aquinas, which express with precision positions which are still 
unassailable, it being no small recommendation of the scholastic philosophy and 
psychology, he remarks, that it has been so satisfactorily confirmed by modern physi- 
ology. He points out that comparative philosophy is of great use in the study of the 
sciences themselves, because philosophy deals with generalizations of first principles, 
while the various sciences deal with or are immersed in particulars. As soon as 
these are left, and general truths or speculations concerning their nature or their 
relation to existence in general are undertaken, this generalizing process is no longer 
a science but philosophy. He goes on to define experimental science, in which he 
includes modern physiology, and points out that the medical faculty are prone to 
regard psychology as a continuation of or an appendix to experimental physiology, 
while the philosophers maintain that the data of psychology are not obtained by 
objective experiment, but by internal or subjective observation. Consequently the 
phenomena belonging to the two studies are of different orders and can not be corre- 
lated. Physiology with all its modern apparatus for delicate observation and experi- 
ment has not passed beyond the senses, and precisely at this point psychology begins. 
Its subject-matter is in part afforded it by or through the senses, but the operations of 
the intellectual faculties and the will are independent of sense impressions. He 
proceeds to illustrate this position as follows: The action of the memory in recalling a 
variety of past impressions, moods, ideas, fears, and hopes which the senses can no 
longer represent from the external world is not a physiological but a superphysio- 
logical or intellectual one. The fact that the materials of the body are entirely 
renewed at comparatively short intervals, while the percipient ego is permanent, 
being the same in the same individual at any one time as forty or fifty years previously, 
shows that it can not be composed of the material elements which have long since been 
eliminated from the body. The work done by the brain in thinking can not be cor- 
related with physical forces; it has no mechanical equivalent, and can not even be 
measured. [This was written before the discoveries relating to radium proved that 
there are physical phenomena which are also irreconcilable with the correlation of 
forces.] The senses present only the exterior of things; it is an intellectual act, 
independent of sense, to penetrate into things and detect their substance, or princi- 
ple — to explain them. This is not a physiological but an intellectual function. The 
senses have special organs, while the intellect and the will, the judgment, imagina- 
tion, etc., have not. The author points out that this distinction was made clear by 



EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES. 143 

Aquinas long before the anatomy of the brain was understood. The organ of a sense 
is necessary to the operation of that sense, and is limited thereto. Thus the visual 
organs can only produce sensations of light and vision. They can not produce hearing 
or touch, etc.j while the understanding is not the result of the action of any organ, 
because it knows things which are not transmitted by the senses, such as scientific 
and moral truths, which are not material objective things. Scientific truths (generali- 
zations) are universal, while the organs of sense can only transmit individual things. 
For example, that the sum of the interior angles of a triangle is equal to two right 
angles, is a fact not transmitted by the senses. So the scientific truth that all bodies 
fall in equal times in a vacuum, is an intellectual act, a judgment, a generalization, 
not a matter of observation. All empirical sciences tend toward generalizations. 
The supersensual action of the mind makes their particulars general. So, too, in 
other directions the senses often serve merely as the occasion of an intellectual act 
without supplying the material or ideas for it, as in the exercise of justice. Again, 
the senses become blunted or destroyed by too great exercise, whereas the intelligence 
becomes more capable the greater and more sublime the ideas presented to it. Sub- 
lime truths presented to uncultivated minds occupied with the things of sense merely 
stupefy them. The mind can not comprehend such ideas without training. It first 
begins with simple judgments about the objects of sense, and gradually proceeds to 
the higher scientific and moral generalizations, which are not presented by sense but 
proceed from the intellect itself. 

A similar course of reasoning is pursued to show that the will is superior to the sugges- 
tions of the senses and to the appetites, and governs them, its objects being previously 
ascertained by the understanding, and as the training of the intellect proceeds from 
simple judgment about external things to the highest scientific generalizations, so the 
object of volition rises from simple and sensible things until finally the will is directed 
to procuring universal well-being, both subjective and objective. All our faculties 
are subject to its energy, and through them the objective world is in some measure 
controlled. The conclusion therefore is that psychology can not be reached through 
physiology alone, but has for its pecviliar study a supersensual activity distinct from 
any physiological or physical phenomenon. The author quotes modern French 
physiological works throughout his treatise, but refers to Herbert Spencer at second 
hand through a French translation. 

The discourse for 1901 by Rev. Father Florencio Llanos, of the faculty of phi- 
losophy and letters, is devoted to combating the doctrine of evolution as enounced 
by Haeckel, and in particular the descent or ascent of man fi'om extinct anthropoidal 
apes. The thesis is stated as follows: "We shall show that the Congress of Zoologists 
at Cambridge [in 1898] did not solve the problem of the origin of man, nor do the 
fossil bones found in Java constitute a certain and demonstrative proof of their rela- 
tionship with the present anthropoids." The author starts with a list of dicta from 
a number of writers, which he had selected as either repugnant to reason or objection- 
able for their perverting tendencies. The authors he challenges are not all biologists, 
but among them are other writers who have been under the influence of the modern 
scientific turn of thought. Among the names he cites are those of Jouffroy, Renan, 
Virchow, Vogt, Haeckel, Darwin, and Huxley. The subject of the discourse is 
treated in a technical manner, with many details relating to anatomical measurements 
taken from the works of the leading comparative anatomists (Quatrefages, etc.), 
while the anthropological and ethnological sides of the question are tested by refer- 
ences to the reports of well-known authorities upon these subjects who have written 
upon the native races of the various parts of the world. The list of these authorities 
scattered through the work is too long to copy, but it includes Broca, Topinard, Huxley, 
and Quatrefages, while the author's minuteness of research is shown by a reference to 
the comparative measm'ements of the heads of negroes born in the United States and 
those born in Africa, which were made by Morton and Meigs. But he also brings to 



144 EDUCATION EEPOET, 1906. 

his aid occasionally passages from Aquinas which anticipate the measurements ni" 
modern science. For example, Aquinas says: "It was necessary that man should 
have a brain which is larger in proportion to the body than that of the other animals, 
in order that the operations of the internal powers of sense, which are necessary t(i 
intellectual action, could go on more freely." This teleological way of explaining 
the fact would be regarded as a case of hysteron proteron by modern writers. The 
learned author lays stress upon the fact that the abyss which separates the lowest 
man from the highest anthropoid, as shown in the range of his ideas, his power of 
development, his religion, etc., has never been crossed, as far as we know, and con- 
cludes that Haeckel's assertion at the Congress at Cambridge that the origin of man 
from anthropoids is a historical fact, is not proved. He occasionally relies upon 
biblical doctrines and church traditions for support outside of his strictly scientiti( 
train of reasoning. 

The discourse for J902 by Rev. Father Ricardo M. Vaqucro, of the theological 
faculty, is an examination of modern spiritualism. The author reviews the whole 
subject from Roman times to the latest manifestations, and concludes that, while 
there is much fraud in the manifestations, some are real, l)ut are the work of evil 
spirits, and attendance at them should be discouraged. 

The address for 1903 by Rev. Father Francisco Cubenas, of the theological fac- 
ulty, has for its subject the union of church and state, and shows the way in which 
the church has adapted itself to the changes in government due to the development 
of the ideas of political and individual liberty which became prevalent after the 
French revolution. In his introduction the author speaks sadly of the changes which 
had come to the university in the few years preceding his address. He says: "We, 
members of the faculty and alumni of a university which until recently had th(! title 
of royal and pontifical, feel somewhat like orphans, since we have been deprived of 
our traditional Spanish patronage, which formerly watched over us jointly with the 
cluuch. To-day we are without a country. Like the universities of the middle 
ages we are an ecumenical body — we are simply apostolic Roman Catholics, our only 
shield is that of the church, our only chief and supreme rector is the pontiff, to whom 
we render with heartfelt gratitude our loyal homage and entire submission, without, 
however, failing to retain a grateful remembrance of the noble Spanish nation, in 
whose name we still seal our degrees and official documents." 

The address for 1904 by Rev. Father Joaquin Recoder, of the i)hilosophical fac- 
ulty, gives in effect a commemoration of the life, writings, and the zealous labors 
of Fr. Miguel de Benevides, who came to the Philippines in 1587 with a band of mis- 
sionaries, and was in reality the founder of the University of Santo Tomas. 

The address for 1905, by Rev. Father Pedro Rosa, of the faculty of sciences, is 
a mathematical treatise, and the author apologizes for presenting to his audience 
such an arid thesis in place of the usual academic discourse by enlarging upon the 
iisefulness and the necessity of understanding mathematics in modem times, while 
such knowledge is especially important hi the Philippines at the present day, since 
in future the education of the Filipino youth will take a scientific tuni and their 
tastes will be diverted to the mechanic arts and applied sciences as well as the phys- 
ical sciences, in all which the calculus plays an important part; hence he takes the 
liberty of presenting a monograph on the Eulerian integrals. In a note at the end 
of his address the author states that the reader must excuse certain irregularities 
and a want of clearness in the impression, as this is the first work of the kind printed 
in the Philippines. 

The address for 1906, by Rev. Father Serapio Tamayo, of the faculty of canon law, 
has for its title "A General Account of Ecclesiastical Discipline in the Philippines 
during the Spanish Dominion." It gives a history of the church in the Philippines 
from the earliest times, including some notice of the charitable and educational 
institutions, all of which were established by the church from the beginning of the 



EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



145 



Spanish control, besides treating more fully the legal, social, and administrative 
functions of the clergy. Church and state having always been united under the 
Spanish rule, the history of the church in the islands is inextricably united with that 
of the government itself, which was practically guided by ecclesiastical policy. 

The University of Manila retains the usual organization of the ancient continental 
univei-sities, dividing its courses of study into the faculties of theology and canon 
law, jurisprudence, medicine and pharmacy, philosophy and letters, and the sci- 
ences. In looking over the names of graduates who received honors or prizes in 
1897, before the American occupation, we find that the distribution among the various 
faculties was as follows: 



FaiHiltv. 



Jurisprudence. 



Medicine 

Pharmacy 

Philo.sophy and letters 

Sciences 



Subject. 



Civil law (Spanish common and forensic) 

Criminal law 

Roman law 

EccU^siastical and colonial law 

Natural law 

Canon law 

Economics and statistics 

Metaphy sics 

Spanish literature 

Spanish history 

Pathology 

Obstetrics and gynecology 

Descriptive anatomy embrj-ology 

Physiology and hygiene . . .". 

Physics ." 

Mineralogy, botany, and zoology 

General chemistry 

General literature 

History 

Topographical drawing .■ 



Compet- 




itive 




degrees 


Province. 


granted. 






Manila. 




Puerto Princesa. 




Albay. 




Do. 




Laguna. 




Manila. 




lloilo. 




Torruel. 




Albav. 




Caniarines Sur. 




Taragona. ' 




Huesea. 


1 


Manila. 




Do. 




Do. 




Cavite. 




Do. 




Albay. 




Capiz. 




Manila. 



The foregoing list of provinces shows that the intlui nee of higher studies is diffused 
more or less through the islands. 

The number of students in the different faculties in 18!)7 is given as follows: 

Theology 16 

Canon law 5 

Jurisprudence 479 

Notaries 93 

Medicine 361 

Pharmacy 90 

Philosophy and letters 51 

Total 1, 095 

The programme of studies for 1897 shows that instruction was given partly by lectures, 
but it also includes the text-books used, which were mostly Spanish, with a few 
French and German names. In the same year the attendance at the colleges of Santo 
Tomas and San Juan de Letran at Manila was 337 and 1,-147, respectively. Of these 
colleges, which were under the imiversity, the college of Santo Tomas was a ( om- 
mercial school, its j^rogramme including industrial mechanics, commi irial arithmetic, 
bookkeeping, commercial correspondence and transactions, political economy, com- 
mercial and indu,strial legislation, commercial geography and statistics, French and 
English, and linear, topographical, and ornamental drawing. The college of San Juan 
de Letran was an institution of general studies, with a five-year course, leading to the 
vmiversity. The first -year course included Spanish and Latin grammar and Christian 
Doctrine; the second, the same, with geography; the third, Latin translations and 

ED 1906— VOL 1 10 



146 EDUCATION REPORT, 1906. 

elementary Greek, history (general, Spanish, and Philippine), arithmetic and alge- 
bra; the fourth, rhetoric, poetry, and Christian morals, geometry and plane trig- 
onometry; and in the fifth were taught psychology, logic, moral philosophy, physics 
and chemistry, and natural history. 

Similar programmes are also given for private colleges of secondary instruction at 
Cebu (attendance 504), Jaro (attendance 241), Nueva Caceres (attendance 268), Dagu- 
pan (attendance 270), Vigan (attendance 201), Guinobatan (118), Bacolod (83), and 
there were, besides, a number of private Latin schools of lower grade scattered through 
the provinces, all under the university. They numbered about sixty and gave the 
instruction of the first two or three years of the colleges above referred to. The Ateneo 
Mvuiicipal at Manila, with a programme like that of San Juan de Letran and Santo 
Tomas combined, had an attendance of 643. These figures show an attendance on 
superior and secondary education of nearly 5,000 students, a figure which, taking into 
account the private Latin schools, must be still further increased. 

In the list of prizes in 1906, the following provinces were represented: Ilocos Sur, 
1 student; Bulacan, 3; Pampanga, 3; Manila, 2; Iloilo, 2; Leyte, 1; Rizal, 1; Sor- 
sogon, 1; Cagayan, 1; Capiz, 1; Samar, 1. 

The prizes were awarded in the following subjects: Metaphysics 3, general litera- 
ture 2, political economy and statistics 1, law (history, Roman, civil, administrative, 
political, ecclesiastical, and criminal, 1 each), 7 in all; physical chemistry 1, miner- 
alogy and botany 1, physiology and zoology 2, anatomy 4, aesthetics and literature 1, 
Latin literature 1, Greek 1, history 1, calculus 1. One degree of doctor in theology 
and 3 in science were conferred in 1906, besides 4 degrees of licentiate in law, 14 in 
medicine, and 4 in phannacy. In the tables giving the programmes and hours of 
studies for 1906 there is no mention of text-books, and the scientific course is more 
comprehensive, having a preparatory course, including analytics, higher and ana- 
lytical geometry, advanced chemistry, botany and mineralogy, advanced physics^ 
physiology and zoology, and drawing. This is followed by the regular course of two 
years, the first embracing differential and integral calculus, descriptive geometry, 
and experimental and applied physics; and the second, cosmography, higher physics, 
and mechanics. 

The tables accompanying the address for 1906 contain the following list of colleges 
incorporated with the imiversity, but no programmes or statistics of students are given: 
The college of secondary instruction of — 

San Juan de Letran, Manila. 

S. Alberto Magno, Dagupan, Pangasinan. 

S. Jacinto, Tuguegarao, Cagayan. 

Nueva Cdceres. 
The college of secondary instruction of — 

S. Beda, Manila, Tanduay. 

S. Agustin, Iloilo. 

S. Vincente de Paul, Samar. 
Two college schools at — 

Taal, Batangas. 

Guinobatan, Albay. 

PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 

The following paragraphs relating to the condition of primary instruction in the 
Philippines for the year 1906 are taken from the sixth annual report of the director of 
education on the islands, David P. Barrows: 

RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES FOR PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 

Public instruction in the Philippines is maintained out of three sorts of public 
funds — the appropriation of the insular government for the bureau of education, 
appropriations by provincial boards for provincial high schools and in some cases for 



EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES. 147 

intermediate schools, and appropriations out of municipal funds for the support of 
primary schools. No tuition of any kind is charged in any school where the teacher 
is paid out of public funds. Insular expenditures for the bureau of education have 
been somewhat augmented the past year, mainly by reason of the transfer to the bureau 
of education of the ethnological survey and of the American Circulating Library, above 
noted, and also by including in the disbursements of the bureau of education the 
expenditure on account of Government students in the United States. The annual 
appropriation bill for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1906, provided the sum of 
$1,450,000 for the bureau of education. The total expenditures out of this sum to 
June 30, 1906, amounted to $1,440,023.84. This is the largest sum ever expended by 
the bureau of education in any one year.a 

The expenditure of the amount of $1,440,023.84 was distributed under the following 
items: 

Office of the director of education $39, 733. 38 

Salaries of division superintendents 61, 076. 76 

Salaries of clerks to division superintendents 15, 175. 07 

Salaries of American teachers 877, 032. 36 

Salaries of Filipino insular teachers 90, 901 . 98 

Wages of night-school teachers 1, 218. 00 

Salaries in division of ethnology since November 1, 1905 4, 143. 32 

Salaries in American Circulating Library since November 1, 1905 2, 561. 33 

Wages of other employees of the bureau 2, 186. 11 

Purchase of schoolbooks and supplies, including equipment, machinery 

and tools for industrial departments of intermediate and high schools, 

furniture, and supplies 206, 085. 04 

Other incidental expenses, including postage, telegrams, printing and 

binding 5, 945. 04 

Transportation expenses of officers and employees of the bureau, including 

transportation of supervising teachers 30, 629. 65 

Rental of buildings 4, 500. 00 

Transportation of supplies •. 3, 436. 61 

Aid furnished the towns of Cavite province for the support of primary 

instruction 6, 938. 84 

The education of Filipino students in the United States 92, 960. 34 

The total expenditure for salaries and wages was $1,089,518.31, and for all contin- 
gent expenses, $350,495.53. 

PROVINCIAL EXPENDITURES. 

Provincial expenditures for support of secondary education show a gratifying 
increase over last year. There are 33 Christian provinces in the archipelago whose 
financial administration is typical. These provinces expended during the year end- 
ing June 30, 1906, the sum of $112,579.72, nearly three times the sum spent in the 
previous year, which was $39,959.20. The larger portion of this amount was paid for 
construction of high school buildings in the provinces of Albay, Bulacan, Oriental 
Negros, Romblon, Sorsogon, Tayabas, Uoilo, and Bohol. This figure includes expend- 
itures from provincial revenues only, and does not include additional sums expended 
on these buildings which came from private donations, nor the amounts furnished by 
the bureau of education. 

The expenditures for the pagan and semipagan provinces, paid out of insular funds, 
amounted to $2,538.51. 

In the Moro Province all school expenses, including salaries of Filipino teachers and 
salaries of American teachers, are paid out of the provincial revenues. For school 
purposes the government of the Moro Province appropriated during the last fiscal year 
$69,733, of which $67,500 was expended. Adding this last sum to the others above 
mentioned, we have a total of provincial expenditures for the archipelago of $182,618.23. 

MUNICIPAL SCHOOL FUNDS. 

Municipal school finances call for special attention, as upon them rests the entire 
system of primary instruction. With a very few exceptions all teachers in primary 
schools during the past year were municipal teachers (Filipinos) appointed by the 

oExpenditures for the fiscal year— 

1905 81, 201,366. 73 

1904 1 , 244, 096. 00 

1903 1 , 400, 563. 00 

1902 1 , 194,381. 00 

1901 233, 411. 00 



148 EDUCATION REPORT, 1906. 

division superintendents, but paid from municipal school funds. Out of the municipal 
funds likewise are paid all expenses of construction and repair of buildings, rentals, 
furniture, janitor service, transportation of school supplies, etc., the bureau of educa- 
tion supplying, as formerly, all school supplies (except furniture) and paying the corps 
of supervising teachers and their travel expenses. 

Receipts of municipal school funds in all provinces, except Benguet and Palawan, 
amounted for the year to $980,009.34, of which amount there was expended $682,065.20 ; 
and unexpended balances on hand at the commencement of the new fiscal year, July 
1, amounted to $297,944.14. 

TOTAL EDUCATIONAL FUNDS. 

Adding together these several kinds of contributions — insular, provincial, and 
municipal — we have as a total of revenues provided for public instruction $2,614,860.07 
of which total there was expended $2,304,707.27. 

These figures do not, however, take account of voluntary contributions made by 
private individuals, usually for new school buildings. Owing to incomplete reports, 
no exact statistics can be given for the entire archipelago this year. For the previous 
fiscal year these gifts aggregated $116,494.17; during the last school year probably 
more has been given toward high school buildings, but less for barrio schools than in 
1905. * * * 

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION GIVEN DURING THE PAST YEAR. 

The number of primary schools, exclusive of the Moro Province, increased during 
the past year to over 3,000, there being 3,108 open in the month of March, the last 
month of the school year. In the Moro Province the number of primary schools 
increased from 52 to 58, including two trade schools of primary grade. Adding these 
58 gives a total of 3,166 primary schools for the islands, an increase of 439 primary 
schools since March, 1905. The number of Filipino teachers likewise increased from 
4,457 to 4,719 (including 324 insular teachers), and in addition to these teachers a 
large number of "aspirantes" or "apprentice teachers" taught during the yesr, there 
being 1,442 reported as employed in the month of March. In some cases these appren- 
tice teachers received nominal pay, but in most cases their services were unremun- 
erated except by the privilege of attending teachers classes and institutes. In the 
Moro Province the number of primary teachers was 63, making a total of 6,224 Filipino 
teachers and aspirantes giving instruction in the last month of the school year. * * * 

In the month of March there were in the primary schools 365,333 pupils, of whom 
220,484 were boys and 144,849 girls, the proportion between the sexes being as 60 to 
40. The average percentage of attendance in all provinces for the month of Marcli 
was 85.2, the best attendance being obtained in the city of Manila, where it was 95 
per cent, with Union and Tarlac both 94 per cent. 

As regards intermediate instruction, in addition to the provincial high schools, 
36 in nutobcr, each of which maintains an intermediate preparatory department, 
there were 92 schools giving intermediate instruction. The total attendance of 
pupils in intermediate classes, including provincial high schools, was in the month 
of March 9,120, of whom 7,018 were boys and 2,102 girls, a proportion of 77 per cent 
to 23 per cent, besides 59 intermediate grade pupils in the Zamboanga High School 
(Moro Province). The daily attendance of these schools is excellent, being 96 per 
cent. Five provinces in the month of March reported that there had not been a 
single absence from school of an intermediate pupil. These provinces were Cania- 
rines, Cavite, Union, Occidental Negros, and Palawan. 

As regards secondary instruction, 17 provinces last year had high school courses. 
These provinces were Ilocos Sur, Bulacan, Cagayan, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, Nueva 
Vizcaya, Pangasinan, Romblon, Surigao, Tayabas, Leyte, Union, Iloilo, Uoccs Norte, 
Cebu, Cavite, and Batangas. The total March enrollment in these secondary classes 
was 308 students, of whom 245 were young men and 63 young women, a proportion 
of 80 to 20 per cent. 

The disparity in numerical attendance of girl students in the intermediate and 
secondary courses is rather marked; nevertheless, some of the very brightest students 
are young women. The highest marks in competition for appointment as Govern- 
ment students in the United States in two successive years have been obtained by 
young women. The percentage of attendance among these high school students was 
most excellent, being 98 per cent in the month of March; 9 of these 17 schools in 
the month of March did not have a single absence of a secondary pupil. 

The Philippine Normal School had in attendance in the month of March 357 students, 
245 of whom were young men and 112 young women, besides 119 pupils in its training 



EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES. 149 

school; the Philippine Nautical School 21 students, young men, and the Philippine 
School of Arts and Trades 237 young men. 

These figures give a total attendance of pupils in all public schools for the month of 
March, 1906, of 375,554, which total may be compared with a similar total of 311,843 
pupils for the month of March, 1905. * * * 

THE TE.\CHING FORCE. 

American teachers under regular appointment on duty during the last school year 
numbered 763. The appropriation authorized 800 American teachers, but did not 
provide an appropriation large enough to employ so many. The force was augmented 
by the appointment from time to time of 68 teachers under temporary employment. 
As regards the American teaching force, the following facts may be of interest: The 
average salary of the regular American teacher was $1,090.67; of all teachers, regular 
and temporary, 574 were men and 257 were women; of these teachers 143 had been in 
the service less than one year. * * * 

Regular teachers are obtained by appointment by the director of education from 
eligible lists certified by the bureau of civil service as the result of examinations held 
in the United States and in the Philippines. A total of 215 men and 107 women were 
so certified during the past year, and of this number 110 nK>n and 27 women were 
appointed and accepted. This method of obtaining teachers is satisfactory except for 
special instructors, as of science, agricultvire, and the trades. These classes of teachers, 
who are greatly needed, seem to seldom enter the examinations. 

The appropriation bill carried 294 positions for Filipino insular teachers, but by 
splitting positions (a measure permissible by executive approval) a considerably larger 
number of such teachers have been employed. In ^larch there were 324 engaged. 
Eligibility for permanent appointment to these positions is obtained by civil-service 
examinations. A fairly large eligible list now exists, though it is not evenly distributed 
in the different provinces. This office has recommended that the standard of this 
examination be raised to an equal grade with the school examination for the comple- 
tion of the intermediate course. Insular teachers have been assigned to various duties. 
A few have been supervising teachers, and in this capacity have given satisfaction; 
some have been teaching intermediate grades, but the majority have served as princi- 
pals or Grade III teachers in central municipal schools. Of the 4,395 municipal 
teachers who had regular appointments, 3,015 were men and 1,380 were women. They 
are for tlie most part young (835 are under 18 years of age), educated largely in schools 
established since American rule, and sprung from the poorer classes as well as from the 
well-to-do. In fact all grades of society are represented. Their average compensation, 
instead of rising, as was anticipated, has decreased, and now averages |9 per mensem for 
men teachers and |8.81 for women teachers, where two years ago the figures were $10.38 
per mensem for men and $10.49 for women. This does not, however, indicate that good 
teachers are paid less, but rather that the standard has gone up, and it has become pos- 
sible to secure new teachers whose training and experience are small at lower salaries 
than before. * * * 

A year ago it was anticipated that the instruction given to Filipino teachers would 
carry the large body of them so far forward as to eliminate teachers of a lower standard 
of attainment than Grade IV. This result, however, has by no means been reached. 
In part this is due to more rigorous examinations and higher standards. The reports 
for March showed that there were 1,862 teachers who had not successfully passed the 
primary examination. Of the rest, 1,222 were classified as belonging to Grade IV, 725 
to Grade V, 281 to Grade VI, and 24 in the secondary course. The average of the insu- 
lar teachers is naturally much higher. In a number of divisions it has been possible to 
adopt the rule that no one who has not passed the primary examination shall be given 
a teacher's appointment. * * * 

Advance is noticeable among the Filipino teachers The system of classification 
introduced among them has been followed by a greater definiteness in their instruction. 
These teachers continue to gain in reliability, strength of character, and moral pur- 
pose. * * * American teachers must necessarily come and go, but this force of 
Filipino teachers, continually gaining in learning, matiu-ity, and character, under- 
standing more and more clearly the character of their mission, and becoming continu- 
ally more devoted to it, promises to be the best and most influential force in the life of 
the islands.. 

The great mass of public school pupils, as has already been sufficiently well indicated, 
are children of the poor or lowest classes. * * * 



150 EDUCATION REPORT, 1906. 

PRIVATE SCHOOLS. 

Private instruction plays a large part in the intellectual life of the islands. While 
not amounting to a complete classification, these private schools may be grouped in 
three classes: 

First, there are institutions of secondary instruction, usually, but not always, sup- 
ported by the Catholic Church, and many of them with a history reaching back several 
decades. The instructors in the institutions are in large part members of religious 
orders. Such institutions exist not only in Manila, but in several provincial capitals, 
particularly those which are episcopal sees. Judging from such information as 1 have 
and from the character of students from these institutions who frequently apply to the 
bureau of education either for further instruction or for other purposes, I should say 
that the instruction in these institutions is undergoing considerable development. 
English has been introduced into most of them, and in some cases is well taught. My 
impression would be that the support given these schools is not much affected by the 
existence of public schools. 

In the second place, private schools or "colegios," sometimes unduly pretentious in 
their announceraents, exist in a great many large towns. They usually offer secondary 
education, including Latin, but give primary instruction aswell; some of them promise 
to confer degrees. Some of them teach English, although in practically all of thera 
Spanish is the basis of instruction. These schools are usually organized by ambitious 
young Filipino scholars, and often secure considerable local support. Not possessing 
large resources nor the prestige of past services they are seriously interfered with by the 
presence of public high schools or intermediate schools. These schools, while not at 
present of a high type of efficiency, in the future, as the standards of education rise and 
the qualifications of private teachers improve, may become an effective element in the 
progress of the people. The instruction, while too pretentious and not sufficiently 
thorough, is by no means without its results upon the minds of the pupils. 

The third class of private school is the primary school, usually conducted in the 
native dialect of the locality and designed primarily to give small children the rudi- 
ments of religious instruction and preparation for their first communion. Sometimes 
these schools are under the direction of the parochial "cura" and are held in the con- 
vent; but quite as often they are held in private houses. Sometimes the teachers are 
men, or more frequently women, who were public school teachers in Spanish times, but 
who did not make the degree of progress necessaiy to continue under the present gov- 
ernment. There are hundreds of these schools all over the archipelago. Children 
sometimes leave the public schools for a few months in order to receive in them the 
religious instruction which is not provided in public schools. * * * An adjustment 
between the work of the public schools and these private schools seems to be gradually 
taking place. The crowded attendance in the public schools makes it necessary more 
and more to exclude from attendance children under 8 or 9 years of age. The years 
from 9 to 12 are believed to be the best for attendance at a public primary school. The 
child is more matured and better able to undertake the learning of a new tongue; leav- 
ing the primary school at from 12 to 15, he is also much more likely to make use of the 
language and instruction therein obtained than if he left at 10. It would then seem that 
there is a period in the life of the child — say, from the age of 6 to 9 — in which private 
instruction may be cordially invited. In a single year of instruction the child could be 
taught the alphabet, and the syllabary necessary to read a native tongue, and, in addi- 
tion, if the school was a church school, receive religious instruction embracing a simple 
exposition of Christian faith, prayers, songs, and Christian morals. It might be fur- 
ther remarked, however, that the task imposed upon the church of giving elementary 
religious teaching would be a far simpler one than that imposed on the government in 
giving three years of primary instruction, inasmuch as where the primary schools must 
attempt to reach 400,000 pupils, these doctrinal schools could be content with a third of 
the number, as the instruction need last but one-third as long; and, while the public 
schools must have native teachers sufficiently trained in English to give three years' 
satisfactory English instruction, the doctrinal schools would require no such standard 
of their teachers. * * * 

There is another field in which the Catholic Chiu-ch, as well as various missionary 
societies, are commencing to cooperate with the work of public education. This is by 
establishing private dormitories for students attending provincial high schools and 
schools in Manila. This has been done in several provincial capitals, and for students 
attending the Philippine Normal School a dormitory has been opened by the arch- 
bishop of Manila. There is a great field for such enterprise and many such student 
homes are needed in addition to such public dormitories as have been opened. These 
institutions have, of course, no official relation with the public schools, whose students 
they shelter, nor with the bureau of education, but, in view of the homeless and 
unprotected life of hundreds of our young men students, their presence is welcome. 



EDUCATION IN CUBA. 151 

ENGLISH AND THE NATIVE LANGUAGES. 

Supervising teachers generally become familiar with the native language of their dis- 
trict and find this knowledge of great assistance to them in their work among the people. 
It is not allowed in the public schools even by the Filipino teachers. English is 
taught, even to the small beginner, without the assistance of translation, the first steps 
of the pupil in chart and primer being so arranged as to obviate its employment. This 
method, which is that most commonly in vogue among teachers of foreign languages, 
receives the general indorsement of American superintendents and teachers. There 
are some, however, who advocate modifications of this method, and their criticisms are 
sufficiently intelligent and thoughtful to demand consideration. 

As far as the people of the provinces are concerned the demand for instruction in 
English has continued to increase, and is at the present time practically unanimous. 

Recently certain Filipino writers in Manila have viewed the teaching of English with 
some alarm. They see in it a menace to the "Filipino soul," and argue that knowledge 
of English will "Saxonize" the Filipino people. * * * 

THE DIVISION OP THE AMERICAN CIRCULATING LIBRARY OP MANILA. 

This library was transferred during the month of March to the same building with the 
bureau of education, and occupies the entire western end of the building. Since this 
removal the library has been open continuously from 8 in the morning until 10 at night 
each day of the week except Sundays and holidays. The number of subscribers 
increased from 290 in April to 430 in June. The nuinl^er of volumes drawn out per 
month is now about 1,400, of which 1 ,100 are fiction. The number of volumes on hand 
June 30 was 12,482. 



II.— EDUCATION IN CUBA. 



HIGHER EDUCATION. 

The Uyiiversity of Habana. — This institution began its career as a university through 
a royal warrant or charter in 1734, which included in the "statutes" of the new insti- 
tution a formidable list of the ancient studies of grammar and rhetoric, theology, the 
scriptures, mathematics, philosophy, civil and canon law, and medicine. The 
university was founded by members of the Dominican Order and was modeled after 
the University of Santo Domingo in Espanola, which had been founded or authorized 
in 1538. The old constitution remained until education in Cuba was secularized 
in 1842, when the old theological, Aristotelian, and scholastic system of university 
instruction, a relic of the middle ages, gave way to the litei'ary and, later, to the 
scientific tastes and requirements of modern times. The degrees in arts, sciences, juris- 
prudence, medicine, surgery, and pharmacy were retained, while those in theology 
and canon law were abolished. There are at present three faculties — the faculty 
of letters and science, the faculty of medicine and pharmacy, and the faculty of law, 
a restriction of degrees which indicates how completely the coui-se of instruction has 
been modernized. The faculties are subdivided into special schools, in which the 
particular subjects pertaining to the general branches are taught. Thus the faculty 
of letters and sciences comprises the "schools" of letters and philosophy, of pedagogy, 
of science, of electrical engineering and architecture, and of agronomy. 

In the school of letters and philosophy are taught Latin and Greek, philology, 
literature, history, psychology, moral philosophy, and sociology. The school of 
pedagogy comprises pedagogical psychology, the history of pedagogy, methodology, 
and drawing; the school of science has for its subjects mathematical analysis, descrip- 
tive geometry, mechanics, astronomy, cosmology, physics and chemistry, anthi'o- 
pology, biology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, and geology; while in the school of 
electrical engineering and architecture the special branches are: Topographical, 
structural, and architectural drawing, stereotomy, geodesy and topography, field 
surveying, materials of construction, resistance of materials, graphic statics, sanitary 



152 EDUCATION EEPOET, 1906. 

and civil engineering constructions, hydromechanics, machinery, road and railroad 
engineering, architecture and the hygiene of buildings, with special courses in elec- 
tricity. From these titles will be seen the scope of the instruction. The details of 
the studies given in the yearbook, or "memoria anuario," published by the university, 
show the practical manner in which they are carried out. Taking mineralogy, for 
example, we have the following practical work prescribed : Testing minerals in the 
dry and the wet way; goniometry, or the measurement of angles on models and on 
natural crystals, with both reflecting and applied goniometers; the drawing of crys- 
tals, with notation; projections of crystals, synthesis of minerals, determination of 
minerals, and study of microscopic sections. The works of reference recommended 
are Poey, Seidel, Tschermak, Lapparent, and Dana. The treatment of geology is 
equally full and includes physiography, or physical geography, comparative geology 
and geogony, petrography, geotechtonics, paleontology, and stratigraphical geology. 

The microscopic study of rocks and their determination is practiced in the labora- 
tory, and field work is conducted by excursions. Drawing and surveying are taught 
in an equally practical manner. 

The course in electrical engineering comprises the visual study of mathematical 
units, mechanical and thermal equivalents, static electrical problems, measurements 
of dynamical electricity, etc., the study of motors, electric lighting, and the design- 
ing, installation, and management of motors, besides other electrical apparatus con- 
nected with electrical industries, together with practice in the electrical laboratory, 
which is equipped with suitable apparatus. Instruction is also given by visits to 
various works where electrical machinery is used. The text-books used are in English 
and French. 

A special course is given in anthropology and ranges from prehistoric anthropology 
and the origin .of man to criminal anthropology and judicial anthropometry. The 
text-books recommended are Broca, Topinard, Frocatre, and Bertillon. The treat- 
ment of the subjects in the special schools of the other faculties is, as described in the 
"Anuario," equally full. In the school of medicine, in the faculty of medicine and 
pharmacy, for example, the means and methods of carrying out the instruction are 
developed with much explanatory detail. It is hardly necessary to give the head- 
ings under which the details are to be found, such as anatomy, dissection, therapeu- 
tics, etc., since they are the common and necessary topics of medical instruction 
everywhere, while the value of the instruction depends upon the instructors and 
their methods. It is to be noted, however, that special stress is laid upon those 
studies which are of particular importance to medical practice in the Tropics, as is 
shown by the title, ''Intertropical pathology with clinics." Microscopical and chem- 
ical work and bacteriology receive their due share in the programme. 

It should be noted that in the third course of the school of letters and philosophy of 
the faculty of letters and science the students in Greek read the lyrics of Alcseus, 
Sappho, Anacreon, Stesichorus, Simonides, Bacchilides, and Pindar. 

In 1905 there were 516 students matriculated in the three faculties of the univer- 
sity, of whom 165 were in the faculty of letters and science, 209 in the faculty of medi- 
cine and pharmacy, and 142 in the law faculty. 

The faculty of letters and science publishes a review, which appears every two 
months. The table of contents of the number for November, 1906, is as follows: His- 
torical and critical notice of higher education in Cuba; The American intervention 
in Cuba (by Secretary Taft); The declination compass (illustiated); International 
science; Etymological revision of the dictionary of the Spanish Academy; Words of 
Greek derivation (continued article); The idol of the "Gran Tierra de Maya" (illus- 
trated); On the resistance of materials; Positivist morals and evolutionist morals; 
An address to physicians; Notices of books — German, French, and Cuban; Miscella- 
neous notes; Official notices. In the September (1906) number of the review is pub- 
lished a curious letter (in Greek) from the president of the University of Athens to 



u. 



EDUCATION IN CUBA. 153 

the president and officers of the University of Habana, entreating them to protest 
against the outrages perpetrated by Bulgarians upon the Greeks, Viurning their 
churches, schools, and libraries, and killing women and children for no other cause 
than that they are Greeks who still speak the tongue of the divine Plato and read the 
Evangel in the language in which it was first written. The writer speaks of Athens, 
the seat of his university, as the city which l)rought forth civil and spiritual lilierty 
and then founded the arts and sciences and civilization upon it. . 

PRIMARY INSTRTCTION. 

The Cuban secretary of public instruction puldishes a monthly jomnal of education 
devoted to primary instruction. It contains information of importance to the teach- 
ing profession in Cuba. A table of contents is here given as illustrating the character 
and grade of the pul)lication: On coeducation; The reciprocal reactions between 
teachers and pupils froni the point of view of contagious diseases and moral influence 
(by a medical expert); On the importance and use of Spanish in Puerto Pv,ico and the 
means recommended to teach it; The oral perceptive method of teaching abnormal 
deaf-mutes; The two schools (religious and lay); American education, the Mosely 
Commission in the United States; Children and tobacco; Varieties; Book notices; 
Official documents. 

From the number for June, 1906, of this official puV)lication are taken the following 
school statistics for the month of March, 1906: There were at that time 3,675 teachers, 
of whom 3,467 were white and 208 colored, and women teachers were in the majority, 
there being 1,386 men to 2,289 women. As to ages, there were 5 men and 212 women 
teachers 18 years old or under, 73 men and 426 women from 18 to 20 years of age, 362 
men and 695 women from 20 to 25 years, 283 men and 410 women from 25 to 30 years, 
362 men and 369 women from 30 to 40 years, 189 men and 150 women from 40 to 50 
yeai's, while there were 115 men and only 32 women over 50. Thus the proportion 
of men teachers increases with age. 

Th number of pupils enrolled in the primary schools during March, 1906, was 
135,420, of v^hom 91,414 were white and 44,006 v.'ere colored. Divided as to sex, the 
boys numbered 73,957 and the girls 61,463. The total attendance at the same time 
was 102,055, or 75.36 per cent of enrollment. Of this number 68,829 were white and 
33,226 colored, and the boys were 56,178 to 45,877 girls. 

SCHOOL JOURNALS. 

Besides the official publication from which these figures are taken, two other Cuban 
journals devoted to school work are received at the Bureau of Education. These are 
Cuba Pedagogica and La Escuela Moderna. They not only treat of pedagogic sub- 
jects and matters of special interest to Ciiban teachers and the Cuban public, but 
contain articles giving information of pedagogical and educational movements in 
other parts of the world. For example, two consecutive numl)ers of ('uba Peda- 
gogica contain articles as follows: The teachers' college; A page from a class journal; 
Review of the pedagogical world; Practical lessons in langiiage; Varieties; The 
longevity of microbes; The sun and heat; The psychological basis of instruction; 
More about the higher schools; Moral education; Practical lessons in geography; 
Physiology and hygiene; A pedagogical congress; Varieties; Hamlet's monologue. 



021 468 905 4 



